379 
NATURE 
himself in the annual College examinations. No person will be 
eligible who has commenced residence in the University, and 
the successful candidate will be required to enter his name at the 
College forthwith, and begin residence in October next. For 
further particulars apply to Dr. Drosier, Gonville and Caius 
College. 
WE have received from the Science and Art Department a 
thick pamphlet containing the prospectus of Sir Joseph Whit- 
worth’s Scholarships for mechanical science. These Scholar- 
ships are of the value of 100/. a year, and are tenable for three 
years, and the competition is open to all Her Majesty’s subjects, 
at home, in India, and in the Colonies, who have not completed 
their 26th year, though we see that after the next examination 
(May 1873) the limit of age will be 22 years, Ten Scholarships 
will be competed for this year, at examinations which will be 
partly in practical workmanship, and partly in theoretical sub- 
jects. Those who desire detailed information, should procure a 
copy of the very full prospectus. 
THE examiners for the Burdett-Coutts Scholarship, Prof. 
Phillips, Prof. Odling, and Mr, E. Chapman, M.A., have 
recommended to the trustees for election, Mr. Edward Clemin- 
shaw, Postmaster of Merton College. The Scholarship was 
founded by Miss Burdett Coutts for the promotion of the study of 
geology and of natural science as bearing on geology. The 
Scholarship is tenable for two years. Mr. Cleminshaw was placed 
in the first class by the examiners in the Natural Science School 
in December last. He received his Scientific training in the 
Applied Sciences department of King’s College, London. 
Mr. J. J. Tayzor, of Giggleswick Grammar School, has 
been elected to the Junior Studentship in Natural Science at 
Christ Church, Oxford. This studentship is of the annual 
value of 100/. Mr. Taylor’s scientific training has been under 
the direction of Dr. W. Marshall Watts, the Science Master 
of the School. 
WE understand that Mr. Osbert Salvin, F.Z.S., is about to 
return to his old collecting quarters in Guatemala for a short 
period. Mr. Salvin’s valuable contributions to the fauna and 
flora of Central America are well known, but we trust that he 
willstill be able to add to his former discoveries, extensive as 
they have already been. 
Tue Russian Government has determined to send a scientific 
expedition with the military force to Khiva. It will leave in 
the course of the present month. 
WE have received a copy of the syllabus of a course of lec- 
tures on botany to be delivered in the Royal College of Science, 
Stephen’s Green, Dublin, by Prof. W. R. McNab. It differs 
from most other similar courses of lectures in its arrangement, 
being closely modelled after Sachs’s *f Lehrbuch.” Commencing 
at once with the morphology of the cell, it proceeds then to the 
morphology of tissues and the external morphology of plants ; 
then to the special morpholagy of the various groups of Thallo- 
phytes, Characeze, Muscinex, Vascular Cryptogams, and Phane- 
rogams ; and finally to physiology. Though, perhaps, erring on 
the side of two great minuteness for a short course of lectures, it 
is admirable in its comprehensiveness‘and scientific arrangement. 
Dr. Davip Moors, the Director of the Botanic Garden of 
the Royal Dublin Society at Glasnevin, has made a successful 
attempt to propagate the well-known parasite of the South of 
Europe, Zovanthus europeus, on oak-trees in the gardens. 
This has frequently been attempted previously by horticulturists 
in this country and in Ireland, and Dr. Moore deserves great 
credit for the energy and perseverance with which he has 
carried his efforts to a successful issue. The common mistletoe, 
which is not a native of Ireland, has also been successfully 
introduced by Dr. Moore and others into that country, and is 
= ee 
a 
now rapidly spreading; and in the Botanic Gardens Zatirea 
squamaria and two species of Ovobanche have also been per- | 
manently established, and six species of Cuscut¢a or dodder more 
transitorily. 
Two fine plants, both from Moreton Bay, are at present ob- 
jects of interest at Kew. The tree of Araucaria Bidwilli, in 
the temperate house, has produced cones for the first time in 
Europe. It was one of the two original plants brought to this - 
country in 1842 by Mr. Bidwill, the other having been purchased 
for 100 guineas by the Duke of Northumberland, The Kew 
tree is about 26 ft. high, and its branches cover a circumference 
of about 60 ft. The seeds are very important articles of food to the 
aboriginal inhabitants, and the property of the tribes in indivi- 
dual trees of the Bunya-bunya isthe only possession they have, 
and is the commencement of a communal system amongst them. 
Dendrobium Hillii is the principal feature in the orchid house. 
The large mass in flower has as many as twenty pale yellow 
racemes, some being as much as 2 ft. m length. 
THE Report of the Ashmolean Society for 1872 shows that a 
little more life has been infused into that society during the past 
year, though we think there is still considerable room for im- 
provement, and hope that next year’s report will be able to 
speak of a considerably greater amount of work of permanent 
value having been done. During the year 1872 the Society has 
held four General Meetings, at which the following communica- — 
tions have been received :—A paper ‘f On House Temperatures,” 
by Prof. Phillips; a note ‘‘On the Meteors of April 19, 
1872,” by Mr. Lucas ; a paper ‘‘On the Breaks of Continuity 
in the Mean Daily Temperature in the months of April and 
May,” by the Radcliffe Observer ; a paper ‘‘On the Sulphur 
Compounds in Coal Gas, and the means of removing them,” by 
Mr. A. G. Vernon Harcourt, F.R.S. ; a paper ‘‘ On the Flint- 
implement-bearing beds of St. Acheul,” by Mr. James Parker ; 
a paper by Mr. Heathcote Wyndham “ On the Recent Eruption 
of Vesuvius,” illustrated by oil paintings of sketches made by the 
author on the spot. hat 
steamer, and a man in many ways remarkable, died at Edin- 
burgh on the 8th inst., in the 5oth year of his age, 
THE new strip of garden belonging to the Zoological Society — 
on the north side of the Regent’s Canal, is now being put into 
order. The bridge over the canal is already finished, and the 
new lodge opposite Primrose Hill only wants the entrance 
gates and turnstiles to make it complete. We understand that 
it will be open to the public on Easter Monday. , 
WE see froma leader in the Vew York Tribune of February 26, 
that the astounding number of almost 200,000 copies of the three 
cent reprint of Prof. Tyndall’s lectures on light has already been 
sold, and that orders are still pouring in for them from all parts 
of the States. The Zridune also publishes a large number of 
letters from people throughout the States asking the letters to 
be sent them, and justly praising the enterprise of the paper in 
so energetically and wisely meeting a wide popular want. It 
reminds one of the demands occasionally seen on this side of the 
water for the last sensation novel or the latest news of the most 
recent poisoning case. Such a wide-spread taste for Zieh? 
literature of the stamp purveyed by the 7yiéwne to its multitu- 
dinous readers, is a healthy sign, and bodes well for the future 
of the country among whose people it exists, ‘ 
WE have received a copy of a letter from Prof. Hayden, 
United States geologist, to his Government, asking a further ap- 
propriation of 100,000 dols. for the purpose of continuing the — 
geological survey of the territories of the United States during 
the approaching season, His request is at once granted. For 
the coming season, the field of labour of the survey is to be 
| (Mar. 13, 1873 
Mr. R. W. THomson, C.E., the inventor of the road — 
i 
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